Freshmen
by conversationswithdeadpeople
Summary: Graduate. Get out of Stoneybrook. Grow Up. Seperate stories from Pieces. Rated M for future chapters.
1. Prolouge

**Prolouge**

"Wow." Stacey McGill breathed as she looked at herself in her mirror. She wasn't saying it because she looked good, because Stacey always looked good and she'd kind of gotten used to it. She was saying it because she was wearing a white high school graduation gown and a cap. For the first and last time ever.

"You ready?" Claudia Kishi swept her dark hair off her shoulders and stood behind Stacey in the mirror. "Are we doing this?"

"Yeah, we're doing this." Stacey said.

"Oh my Lord." Claudia said. "Stacey, we're _graduating_."

Stacey felt tears prickle the backs of her eyes. _Don't cry Stacey, you'll ruin your makeup_. "I can't believe it."

"I thought I would never get here." Claudia said. She crossed Stacey's room and picked up the brochures from Columbia. "I can't believe at the end of the summer we really have to leave this place."

"Isn't it crazy?" Stacey agreed.

"Stacey!" Her mother called from downstairs. "It's nearly time to go!"

Stacey and Claudia turned to each other.

"Wow." Stacey said again. In mutual understanding, they grabbed each other's hands and squeezed tight. They'd been through a lot together. But they were graduating. Going to college. And growing up.

It was kind of intense. Stacey was going to Columbia, in her home town of New York City. Claudia was moving all the way across the country, to UC San Francisco.

"Are you ready, girls?" Mrs McGill asked them as they swept down the stairs and into the kitchen. An attractive woman even in her early forties, she placed a pan of cookies fresh from the oven on the kitchen bench, whipping off her apron to reveal a stylish black suit. "Claudia, do you have to go home first?"

"Nah, my parents are meeting us there." Claudia replied. She bit into a cookie, extra chocolatey, the way she liked it.

"I'm so proud of you two." Mrs McGill reached her arms out for a hug, and Stacey and Claudia both sunk into them. The three of them had become quite the little family, Claudia practically living at the McGill's house while her parents had gone through a messy divorce in the past year. And to think all three of them were going to be separated. It was unimaginable.

"Mom, we're going to go get Mary Anne and Dawn, okay?" Stacey said. She kissed her mom on the cheek, they grabbed their things and ran out to Stacey's car. They were doing it. They were graduating.

"It's the end of the beginning." Claudia said, as she pulled out her SideKick to message her friends.

"Everything is going to change now." Stacey added as she backed out of the driveway.

She couldn't have been more right.


	2. UC San Francisco I

**A/N: A story I'm doing for fun, coz I just can't find any inspiration for **_**Pieces **_**right now. Enjoy and please review, because any feedback will make my day.**

**Disclaimer: I didn't invent the character of Claudia or her other BSC friends. In case you're wondering, I also didn't invent UC San Francisco. It's a real college. Shocked?**

* * *

**UC SAN FRANCISCO**

**CHAPTER ONE**

It was one in the afternoon on Claudia's first Saturday morning at UC San Francisco…and her head was _pounding_.

Hazy memories swirled through her head. A round of cocktails after her five pm. Criminology class. Heading back to her dorm and her roommate, Emily, telling her about some wild frat party she'd gotten an invite too. A hurried outfit switch into a swishy halter top and red heels, being pulled across campus by Emily, meeting a brand-new group of partiers and the hot frat house guys. Drunken dancing. Lots of vodka.

_Ouch._

She'd been at college since last Sunday, and it was as awesome as she'd thought it would be. Her roommate, Emily Lake, was just as cool as she'd hoped. Her classes were just as interesting as she'd dreamed. Her art professor was _waaay_ better than any teacher she'd ever had, and she'd made so many friends she couldn't even remember all their names. And San Francisco…was beautiful.

"Good morning, sunshine." Chimed a lilting voice. Claudia looked up, expecting to see Emily, but was a tall black figure was standing in the doorway. It took a couple seconds for her to realize that it was Hannah, who was paying for a room next door but, thanks to her unbearably stuck-up roommate, spent most of her time with Claudia and Emily.

"Hey." Claudia groaned, pushing back her covers and rubbing her temples. She stretched her long legs out and noticed that she'd gone to sleep in the same tight jeans she'd worn to the party. "How come you're up this early?"

"I never get hangovers." Hannah shrugged. She sat on the end of Claudia's bed and handed the taller, Asian girl a large coffee. "But I thought _you _could use this."

"Thank you!" Claudia gasped. She seized the coffee and gulped it, ignoring the pain as the drink burned her throat.

"So you never get hangovers? What's that about?"

"Not sure." Hannah said. She shook her dark brown curls. "Where's Emily?"

"I don't really remember if she came home last night."

"Oh." Hannah arched an eyebrow suggestively. "I see how it is."

Claudia laughed. Emily was from a conservative town in Tennessee, although she was definitely _not_ a small town girl. She'd jumped on the newfound freedom with too much enthusiasm and Claudia wouldn't be surprised by _any _stories she'd have to tell when she showed up.

"I guess we should probably go look for her, in case she's passed out in a gutter somewhere." Claudia said.

"True." Hannah helped Claudia out of bed. "At the very least, we can walk to The Tea Pot to get some breakfast and see if we find her."

"Okay." She agreed, although she'd have liked nothing more than to crawl back into bed. She jammed her feet into hot pink Cons and pulled a comfy purple hoodie over her ratty tank top. Even though her hair was a mess and her make up would have been smudged all over her face, she followed Hannah down the hallway and into the sunlight.

The Tea Pot was a cafe nearby to their dorm room, which stayed open 24/7 so students could caffeinate while they studied. If Emily was passed out in a gutter, it wasn't likely that it would be on the way to The Tea Pot, but Claudia still wanted breakfast.

"A salt bagel with extra cream cheese." Claudia ordered once they were at the counter. "And an iced chocolate with whipped cream and caramel sauce. And…two cookies."

Hannah looked dubiously at Claudia and ordered a croissant. "Are you insane? How do you stay so skinny?"

Claudia shrugged as she helped herself to the mints on the counter. She'd always eaten like this, through high school, middle school, and she intended to feed her skinny frame like this for the remainder of college too.

They accepted the white paper bags full of their food and sat down outside.

"I'm so glad it's the weekend." Hannah said as Claudia shoved half a cookie into her mouth. "I like my classes, but they're so hard!"

Hannah was studying for a doctorate in psychology, so it wasn't really that surprising that her classes were hard. Since Claudia was only planning to stay at UC San Francisco for a year, before going to the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, she hadn't decided exactly what path she was taking. But she was taking a bunch of art classes, fashion design and criminology.

Thinking of criminology made Claudia remember something. "Hey, that Nancy Drew movie is coming out. You want to go see it?"

Hannah glanced at her. "Isn't it kind of a kids movie?"

"So?" Claudia stretched her aching limbs. "I read all the Nancy Drew books. I totally used to be obsessed with her."

If truth be told, she still read them. In fact, she was halfway through one of them right now. But she wasn't about to admit that. Even Stacey didn't know she still read them.

"Okay, why not." Hannah agreed. Suddenly she stood up. "Well, what do you know?"

Claudia took a huge bite of bagel and turned around. Surprise, surprise, there was Emily, stumbling along the footpath at nine o'clock in the morning, wearing high heels.

"Talk about a walk of shame!" Claudia whistled. Emily looked up and hobbled over.

"Where have you been, girl?" Hannah asked.

"Certainly not in Brady's room." Emily mumbled. She grabbed Claudia's hot chocolate and swished down a huge gulp.

Claudia giggled immaturely. "Slut."

"Shut up." Emily said. "I snuck off before he even woke up. How mean am I?"

"Ouch!" Hannah gasped. "Poor Brady."

Emily slid into the spare seat and massaged her left foot. "These heels are so pretty, but they are so not designed for the walk of shame."

"So what does this Brady look like?" Claudia asked.

"He was hot. He had…either blonde or brown hair." Emily said thoughtfully. "And grey eyes, I think."

Claudia and Hannah stared at her.

"I was really drunk!" she protested. "I mean, come on."

Hannah laughed. "I'm hearing you, girl."

"It's been a tough week." Emily added. "Any chance of getting a sympathy coffee? I don't have any money on me."

"I'll get you one." Claudia offered. She walked back into the café and ordered a tall latte for Emily.

"Sugar?" asked the girl at the register.

"Yes please." Claudia glanced around the café. A couple of students were holed up in the comfy chairs reading huge textbooks. And there was one guy in the corner, strumming softly on a guitar. He had black hair and the kind of tan skin you just _knew_ would be like that in winter.

Claudia took the coffee and waited nonchalantly by the counter until Guitar Boy looked up. It was at least two minutes before he glanced at the door as the bell chimed. Claudia caught his eye and flashed him her most winning smile. Then she walked out.

Always leave them wanting more.


End file.
